Patient Gets Hefty Judgment

Hollywood Center Gave Wrong Dose

A woman who mistakenly got 10 times too much anti-clotting drug at Hollywood Medical Center has won a $1.65 million jury verdict.

Ingleberg Pfiitze, now 45, of Hollywood, went to the medical center on July 25, 1988. She was suffering from blood clots after a hysterectomy and needed medicine.

Her internist, Barry Harris, prescribed 2,500 units of heparin, an anti-coagulin. He phoned in the order to emergency room nurse Jayne McElhaney, said Milton Blaut, Pfiitze's attorney.

Instead of giving Pfiitze 2,500 units of the drug, she got 25,000 units.

Pfiitze suffered memory problems as a result of the mistake, Blaut said.

"Her whole life is different now. She forgets she did something," Blaut said.

The jury found the nurse at fault. McElhaney no longer works at the medical center, but her job change was not a result of this mistake.

The verdict will be appealed, said James Sawran, attorney for the hospital.

"[The hospital) feels very strongly that the care rendered to this patient for treatment of pulmonary embolism, a potentially life-threatening medical condition, was not only appropriate, but the patient suffered no harm as a result of the care provided by the hospital," Sawran said.

The jury delivered the verdict on Friday, after a two-week trial before Broward Circuit Judge Leonard Stafford.